


Diane

by chandlerina



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-27
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-19 21:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3624690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chandlerina/pseuds/chandlerina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cooper escaped the Black Lodge. He slammed his head into a mirror at the Great Northern hotel and was rushed to the hospital. A few days later, Diane arrives to investigate the trauma of her federal friend, and the hospital is packed with patients. One of them is Audrey, who has survived an awful explosion at the local bank. Diane decides to talk to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diane

**Author's Note:**

> This is Audrey/Cooper centric because I needed someone to tell Audrey that she actually meant something to him. Because she did.

The heels of her shoes loudly announced her arrival as she walked with quick steps down the hospital hallway. She noticed the green colors everything had been painted with, the calming color, but she didn't feel very calm. Turning a corner, she was faced with a commotion of people, all trying to get the attention of a nurse that was calmly writing something in a patient's journal. Looking at all these people, it seemed like more had happened here than merely the reason she had come. 

Getting the attention from a man with a sheriff's badge, she reached out her hand for him to shake. “You must be Sheriff Truman,” she said, meeting his eyes, “My name is Diane. I'm Cooper's colleague.”

“Yes, of course,” the Sheriff said, moving away from the group of people to find a calmer place, “I've heard a lot about you.” That was a lie, and Diane knew it. Cooper would never mention who she really was, that was a deal they had. “He's just down the hall.”

Following the Sheriff, she noticed that most of the rooms were occupied, and as she got closer to the end of the hall, she saw a girl stand lurking at the window by Cooper's room. The girl was dressed in a hospital gown, and her arms and legs were covered in cuts and bruises.

“Audrey,” the Sheriff said to her, and she looked up at him with surprise. “You should go lay down.”

“He's not getting better, is he?” The girl said but not waiting for an answer, turning slowly away from the window and walked with silence back to the room she'd been assigned.

“Has there been another attack?” Diane said, looking after the girl and getting flashbacks from the many medical reports she had read on Teresa, Laura, Ronette and Maddy. Had this evil BOB escaped the woods and attacked again?

“There was an explosion down at the local bank. It's been a little crazy here lately, it feels like half the town had some kind of injury the night Cooper-,” the Sheriff sighed and looked down at his feet. “The night of his accident.”

Opening the door, Diane walked into the room. “Hey, Coop,” she said, reaching into her bag to find a flashlight. “He hasn't been responding at all?” She then said, lifting his eyelids to shine the light into his chocolate brown eyes.

“Nope,” the Sheriff said, lingering by the door. Diane noticed how the current state of her federal friend was affecting him.

“Oh, Coop,” she sighed, clicking off the light of the flashlight and dropping it back into her bag. She felt his cheeks, his forehead, she took his pulse and listened to his heartbeat. He was unconscious, but he was breathing on his own at least. Picking up a tape recorder from her bag, she flicked on the recording button and started to pace around in the room. “Denise, it's,” she looked at her wristwatch, “3:47pm. I'm standing here in Agent Cooper's hospital room and so far, I've noticed no signs of response from him. He is breathing on his own, but I'm feeling uncertain about things, Denise. I'm going to visit the Great Northern hotel later tonight and see if I can find any clues inside his hotel room,” Diane sighed, turning off the recording. But then she clicked it back on and said, “Denise. This is a nightmare.”

The Sheriff opened the door and together they left Cooper's room. Diane noticed that the commotion around the nurses office had escalated and people seemed to be more agitated than before. “I should go and see what's going on,” the Sheriff said, “Do you need a ride to the hotel, or can you find your way? Maybe we can meet up there.”

“I can find my way,” Diane said, and watched how the Sheriff rushed off. But there was someone else she wanted to talk to before she could leave.

Her room was much colder than Cooper's, and as soon as Diane stepped inside, she noticed that the window had been pushed open. The girl sat in the middle of her bed, tracing a cut on her leg that had been stitched. “Audrey?” Diane said, closing the door behind her.

“Yes,” Audrey said, not looking up, “Do I know you?”

Diane moved closer to the bed and sat down on a chair up by the open window. The cold air felt good against her neck. “No,” she said, “My name is Diane. I work with Agent Cooper. I saw you looking through his window earlier.”

Audrey looked up from her leg. “Oh,” she said, “Well, I didn't mean to-, I wasn't really seeing anything-,” and then she seemed to calm down inside and said, “Is he gonna be okay?”

“I don't know, Audrey.” There was a bruise across the girl's face that looked awfully painful. “I heard about the explosion. How are you feeling?”

But the girl just tilted her head. “I knew those woods were dangerous,” she said, her gaze moving to look out the window. “There is something awful out there, you know. There's a place-,” but then she trailed off, “Have you seen my daddy?”

“No, should I?”

She pursed her lips. “He is here, too, at the hospital. He hit his head and they think he's gonna die.”

Diane watched how the girl pulled up the covers and wrapped her arms around herself. “That's awful, Audrey.”

“He had emotional problems,” she said, smiling to herself, “It runs in the family. My brother Johnny doesn't understand why he's not waking up. My mother doesn't talk to me anymore.”

Diane watched how the girl sighed to herself. “Why not?”

“She says I'm the reason that this family is falling apart,” Audrey said, looking at Diane again, “She says I should have died with Pete in the explosion.”

Diane frowned. “It sounds like your mother is a bitch.” To that, Audrey smiled, laughed a little even, and Diane recognized her from something Cooper had described once. “Audrey,” she started, moving to sit down on the bed next to the girl, “I've heard so much about you.”

Audrey just looked at her. 

“Besides Laura, you are the one Cooper told me the most about. I know you helped him with the case, and I know that you mean a lot to him.”

Audrey looked down at the bedsheets. “I was too childish,” she said.

“Audrey,” Diane said, tilting her head to meet the girl's blue eyes, “He cherishes you and really respects you. If he didn't tell you that, then I hope he will when he wakes up.”

There was a moment when they didn't say anything, and Diane noticed how Audrey seemed to really think about what had just been said to her. And then she smiled softly while her eyes seemed to gaze off into the air between them. “He made me feel like he really listened to me.”

Diane placed a hand on top of Audrey's. “He did.”

Minutes ticked by while they sat there together, and Diane started telling Audrey stories about when she had first met Cooper. How young he had seemed, but how much Diane had trusted him. 

“I hope he will be okay,” Audrey said softly, and Diane nodded, hoping so too.

Neither of them knew if he would really ever be himself again. But he would. Just days later, he would open his eyes and ask for his tape recorder, and Diane would stand leaning in the doorway with Audrey smiling softly next to her. And the Sheriff would be able to walk fully into the room and lay a hand on his friend's shoulder, finally, and Cooper would be okay.

But what really had happened in those woods, and in Cooper's soul that night, would take years to figure out. 25 years to be exact.


End file.
